Sachh Foundation: 18-year-old's vision to connect youth of the world

There’s a lot that the youth can conceptualise and execute, and Sachh Foundation is one prime example. Founded by Sankalp Mohan Sharma, who is just 18 years old, this NGO has been successful in expanding its presence to seven countries – Nepal, Haiti, Peru, Senegal, Nigeria and Malawi –just five months after launch. The goal is to form the largest youth network of global youth leaders working towards sustainable development. Sachh became a reality only earlier this year in June after Sankalp’s five years of intense work at home and on field.

Team Sachh is now in pursuit of finding youngsters in societies, localities and cities of every country to connect them all to form a single organisation.

Sankalp, the Director-Founder of the organisation, told Deccan Chronicle that his interest towards volunteering for social causes, which he has been doing since high school, pushed him to take it to the next level. “Creating awareness on climate change, being a proactive environmentalist or a civic activist and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 were something that I always had set as a life goal to achieve as soon as possible. From volunteering for one-day events to attending month-long internships, I was learning how to be a professional change-maker since 2014,” he said.

Team Sachh wants to bring simple truths into the open on a global platform through youngsters professing for the right change at the right time, “From questioning stereotypical beliefs to bringing smiles on the face of others, our team members are filled with energy and enthusiasm which is channelled in a positive way to impact the whole world,” he said.

Asked what made him run an international project, he said he was motivated after representing the country at various global summits and conferences. Sankalp has already been part of the Climate Reality Leadership Training Programme in Texas, USA (2016), International Youth Fellowship Leadership Camp in South Korea (2017) and United Nations Summer Youth Assembly (2017), where he came across representatives from different countries which he has used to build the present network.

Sachh has a clear action plan to expand its operations to more countries one at a time. “Each of the seven countries has a country head (from the age group 18-22), who is in charge of the centralised process of carrying out planned activities. The youth leaders in each country are then asked to select leaders from each province/city/locality to reach out further and to build a stronger team,” he explained.

Sachh has started an online campaign, #GoodDeedsSaturday, urging people from around the world to do a simple good deed during weekends, which has been garnering a lot of attention for the NGO. Led by his sister and social media influencer Nikita Sharma, also a motivational speaker, microbiologist, dancer and a model, the initiative has created new changemakers, the team said.

His family – father Sandeep Kumar Sharma, a former defence personnel, and mother Chhavi Sharma, a motivational speaker – has been supporting and guiding Sankalp. The NGO has a mentoring panel, consisting of Mr Ramesh Balasundaram, director, Bal Utsav, Mr Sridhar Pabbisety, social activist, and Mr Aditya Pundir, Branch Manager, Climate Reality Project India.

The NGO, which says it has touched several thousands of people from across the world, collected over 12,000 pieces of clothing, with set cleanliness standards, in less than a month and donated them in slums across the country, orphanages in Nepal and terror relief camps in Nigeria.

Sachh also got shoes for children from slums who used to play barefoot earlier. Similarly, a stationary drive was organised and over 6,000 items were distributed in different countries. The team was also on the field during the recent Kerala floods and helped those affected by unprecedented natural calamity.

“We are pumped up by the responses we have received from different corners of the world in the first five months of work. This has kept us motivated to do lot more in the coming months, years and decades, together as a unit across nations and diversities,” Sankalp said.